How Japanese Green Tea Is Made | Grow & Tell — Key Takeaways
Shading tea plants for 20+ days before harvest is legally required to call the product matcha — without it, it's just green tea powder.
Key takeaways
Matcha legally requires 20+ days of shading before harvest — unshaded powder is just green tea
Matcha legally requires 20+ days of shading before harvest — unshaded powder is just green tea
- Shading blocks sunlight, preventing L-theanine from converting to bitter tannins, concentrating umami amino acids.
- Without shading, the product cannot legally be called matcha — it's simply green tea powder.
Traditional stone grinding produces only 20 g of matcha per hour — enough for 10 cups
Traditional stone grinding produces only 20 g of matcha per hour — enough for 10 cups
- Industrial stone mills scale to ~40 g/hr; large commercial machines reach 20 kg/hr.
- This bottleneck explains why stone-ground matcha has been a luxury product for 700+ years.
Hand-picking matcha: 20 people, 1.5 days, yields only 13 kg of finished matcha
Hand-picking matcha: 20 people, 1.5 days, yields only 13 kg of finished matcha
- Average picker age was 80; the extreme labor explains why hand-picked matcha commands premium prices.
- Machine harvesting is standard on most fields; hand-picking preserves natural tree shape and improves new-sprout quality.
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In this video
- 1mIntroduction to Wazuka and D Matcha Farm
- 2mShading Technique and the Science of Matcha
- 6mTea Plant Cultivation: Lifespan, Terroir, and Cultivars
- 11mOrganic Farming, Duck Rice, and Community Stewardship
- 17mFrost Protection, Trimming, and Hand Harvesting
- 20mFactory Processing: From Fresh Leaf to Tencha
- 24mStone Grinding and Matcha Tasting
“must otherwise it's just green tea powder”
— Daikisan
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